This reporter has only been
going to productions at the Ancon Theater for about one-quarter of the
Theatre Guild's 60-year history, so it would not be intellectually
honest to declare that Groundwater was the strangest production every
staged in that little wooden building. The August 23 performance of
Groundwater was, however, the strangest
thing this reporter has ever seen there. But of course, hippies, even
aging
ones, are supposed to be weird. Appreciation of
strange things is our vocation, our raison d'etre.

Groundwater was a bilingual but not all that highly verbal multimedia
show, with audience participation, audience on the stage and performers
in the audience. There were video installations --- but that scene with
Awilda Rodríguez Lora eating the mango --- was that video,
or some sort of a lower-tech back projection? Should we call parts of
the performance "contemporary dance," or are they more properly
described as "experimental movement?" Music? Check. Written
communications? Those, too.

Coming at you from various angles, you get abstract glimpses of the
relationship between the United States and Panama --- the struggles and
the cooperation; the joy, horror and insanity; the conscientious
construction and wanton destruction; the die-hard know-nothing
nationalism; the largely black identity of those who built the canal;
the sense of a small country used like a small fish to fertilize
someone else's garden, yet neverthelesss turning into something live
and unique.

This production was part of Katie Zien's Fulbright scholarship in
pursuit of an interdisciplinary Northwestern University PhD, with a dissertation about the
history, social relations and performing arts of Panama and the former
Canal Zone during the near-century when the canal was built and managed
under US auspices. It's also another step onto the international stage
for director Baraka de Soliel, Awilda Rodríguez Lora and
Tanisha Christie, all of whom are noteworthy performers, directors,
producers and creators in experimental performing arts genres. The
mainly Panamanian cast came from many creative fields, from drama and
dance, engineering and architecture, jewelry and photography.

The show left a strong but ambiguous impression, which would not do for
somebody who demands clear answers. But who --- who really knows Panama
--- would not recognize the uncertainty and the lack of clearly defined
lines as some of the defining features of what this country is?

Co-sponsors for this show included the US Embassy and Northwestern
University's Center for Interdisciplinary Research in the Arts.